Country Profiles

Remarks on ANI TV

Robert O. Blake, Jr.Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

New Delhi

October 22, 2010

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BLAKE: Thanks to all the viewers of ANI. I am here to help advance the trip of President Obama in early November to India.

This is going to be a very historic trip because President Obama views our relations with India as one of our defining partnerships in the 21st Century. The United States and India have made tremendous progress over the last ten years to build our relations. We now cooperate in virtually every field of human endeavor.

I think now where we are increasingly focusing our efforts is how the United States and India can work together to build a new international system in which our two democracies can cooperate to counter the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Our two democracies can help build democracies in other parts of the world. We can help build economic opportunities not only for people outside the country but of course for our two countries as well. And we can have our two civil societies, our scientists, our entrepreneurs and our business people, to develop new innovations that will benefit our people and the people around the world.

So this is a moment of exceptional promise for the United States and for India. I think that President Obama’s visit will truly reflect that in many many important ways.

We are particularly excited about the economic promise of our relations. We think that a lot of the cooperation that we are now undertaking will help to expand markets in both of our countries, will help to expand employment opportunities, will help to provide new opportunities for American business, but will also help to provide new opportunities for all of India, to make this important relationship relevant for all of India.

So for example in the agricultural sector, American companies now increasingly are working to help to build the networks, the cold chains and other supply chains that will help to modernize Indian agriculture and help to market Indian products. And we’re helping to provide new health opportunities for all Indians. So there’s a wide range of areas in which I think the visit will show the concrete benefits to both of our peoples from this expanding strategic partnership that we have.

So let me again extend a very warm greeting from the people of the United States and from the President of the United States to the people of India.

The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

Sign-in

Do you already have an account on one of these sites? Click the logo to sign in and create your own customized State Department page. Want to learn more? Check out our FAQ!

Because JavaScript is disabled, you can only sign in by entering your OpenID URL manually: